


The Meeting

by TheTriggeredHappy



Category: Wander Over Yonder
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, Arospec Wander, Kissing, M/M, Swearing, skeleton dance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-06
Packaged: 2018-06-06 19:55:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6767824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTriggeredHappy/pseuds/TheTriggeredHappy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wander asks Hater to meet him after school for what was intended to be a short discussion.</p><p>(I swore I wouldn't write ship fics for WOY but here we are. Shipping.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> [Alternatively titled 'The Shame' because that is all I feel.  
> Shout-out to The Scoop by Kacy_Myth for being the straw that broke the camel's back when it comes to this ship (It's a great fic go read it). I've been lurking through sinfics all week and this was cathartic for me. Here take my sin just take it. Includes makeouts and wander requiring a turtleneck, hater probably needing one eventually too. just take my keyboard from me please]

 

"Uh…Wander?"

 

"Yes'm?"

 

"What. The HELL. Is wrong with your neck? Oh my god and your BACK what the—what the fuck?!"

 

"Well what _ever_ it is I'm sure it can't be _that_ ba—OH MY GRACIOUS."

 

The redhead stared with awe in the mirror, turning in place, trying to look at what had happened from all angles. His back was scraped up just a bit, but the main problems looked to be the bruising on his shoulder blades and the matching marks littering against the jaw and base of his neck. It looked for all the world like someone had given him vibrant stamps on his neck and bare back, dark violets, reds, darkening his freckles in turn. There was only a beat of surprise before he sucked in a breath, eyes widening in realization as he remembered the cause of them.

 

"Uh oh." _Walking with a spring in his step around the back of the building, the side with the parking lot and dumpsters and the back door hardly anyone used, the area long abandoned after school had ended just under two hours before. Giving a cheerful greeting to the individual waiting there for him, receiving a glare in return, already vicious, already annoyed, but then the redhead was replying slyly, borderline cheeky, but still friendly, of course._

 

"What do you MEAN, uh oh?!" Sylvia said, looking horrified. She had stopped halfway through getting dressed to stare in shock at him. She quickly finished putting on her jacket, walking over and inspecting the marks and bruises more closely. "Wander, what the hell HAPPENED?! You look like someone tried to strangle you! You haven't gotten this banged up since—" She stopped midsentence, realization darkening her expression. She turned him around by the shoulder and stared him in the eye, all business. "Wander. Did Hater or any of his dogs do this to you?" she asked seriously.

 

"...Um." _A pair of strong fists grabbing hold of the front of his shirt, taking him by the collar, slamming him into the brick wall, bellowing something, ears hurting just slightly at the volume but Wander was still smiling nonetheless. And when the bellowing pauses for the shortest moment he was murmuring something smoothly that makes the hands go slack, the pressure pause, confused, surprised, stock still._ "Well... okay, so this time it was an accident, honest it was! Um… mostly, I mean."

 

"What kind of accident could cause this?!"

 

"Well..." _The redhead following his impulse, pressing forward despite the hands on his collar and taking a kiss in the pause before he can reply. The hands go completely slack, the green, green eyes go wide, and he was still smiling, eyes now peering through lashes slyly. Then after only a moment's hesitation, a moment’s shock, he's pressing right back, and it's fierce and makes his head spin just a bit because he didn't expect him to be so... intense. He all of a sudden felt so terribly breathless, so surprised, eyes fluttering closed completely._ "The kind of accident that I have a feeling you won't like very much."

 

"Wait, your _lip_ is busted up too!" He looked at the mirror, and sure enough, his bottom lip was swelling just a bit. "I swear to god I am going to PUMMEL that jerk into the ground! Never though he'd actually have the courage to beat you up, well, he's gonna pay is what he's gonna do—"

 

"Syl, no, wait!" _And teeth nipping at his bottom lip sharply, and he gasps, and there is no hesitation from strong arms and broad chest, he’s pressing forward still, controlling and forceful and wow. This is a battle that he had no doubt he could win, and oh boy does he, Wander giving the smallest whimper, not of protest, never of protest, so so so breathless. He tasted like spearmint, just the faintest traces, and that grounds Wander a little._ "It was my fault that it happened!"

 

Sylvia frowned at him. "Pal, I know you like to try and save people's hides, but there is literally no way this is your fault."

 

"But..." _That was enough, and the lips, the teeth, the faintly spearmint tongue are against his jawline, his neck, and that mouth finds out incredibly fast just what makes him shiver, makes his breath catch, makes him let out more of those little sounds, not in protest, and his breathing is coming fast and the brick digs into his back, practically painful, but he hardly notices._ "It really, really is!"

 

"Either way, he has some explaining to do," Sylvia growled, clenching her fists. "I'm getting the truth one way or another."

 

"But... I'm _bein'_ honest!" _A soft cry at a tongue tracing the vein of his neck, in return a growl against his skin, Wander shifting his torso and now that strong, broad chest is pressing against him in a new way and he groans, pulling him back up to kiss him again before he loses his mind. He finds himself holding in a grin, nipping sharply at his lip and he giggles at the surprise in the green eyes, and so he does it again with his eyes behind his lashes because that seemed to get a reaction last time. He feels his heartbeat thrumming in his chest just a little bit faster as the expression darkens, the green eyes narrow, and he presses forward and his breath is taken away again and oh my._ "I started it, I really did! On my honor, my fault!"

 

"Did you, though?" She narrowed her eyes. "Because this isn't something that happens unless both people participate, both with at least a little blame.”

 

He coughed. "Oh. Um." _A voice, low enough to make his knees knock and his head spin, right against the shell of his ear, saying they shouldn't be doing this here. No, actually, why were they doing this at all? They shouldn’t be doing this. Not pulling away, mouth to the shell of his ear, saying they really… shouldn’t be… and Wander replying that it really was okay if he wanted to go, he wouldn't be mad, he promised. And the strong arms fierce lips green eyes broad chest stared him in the eye for only a moment before he started kissing up the other side of his neck, not replying. Wander had never seen that look in his eyes this close up before and he almost swoons._ "You're definitely right about that."

 

"Okay, could you. Tell me how it went down?" Sylvia rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Just… start at the beginning.”

 

"So... I sent him a message." _His arms weren't on Wander's biceps anymore, they found his waist, and there was contrast in the motion, the gentleness of what was almost a caress as opposed to teeth, sharp against the space under his ear, then suddenly the hands gripping mercilessly as he adversely licked at the same place, as if to smooth it back over again. Wander's hands found themselves fisting in the front of his hoodie, desperate for something, neither of them entirely sure what, but his cheeks felt hot and he didn’t dare open his eyes just yet._ "Asked him to meet me after school to talk."

 

"Why?" Sylvia asked slowly, suspiciously.

 

"I just." _Breath hot against his collarbone, tugging at the neck of his shirt. A sudden sharp bite at the base of his freckled neck, Wander's leg jerking upwards in reaction, lightning-fast those strong hands are catching it, using it as leverage to push harder against the wall, deeper into a kiss, and he really does swoon that time just a little, and he feels him grinning into the kiss, and his heartbeat skips._ "Thought we should try and talk things out."

 

"Alright. Whatever. Then what?"

 

"Um. He started yelling at me." _The other hand tangles in his hair, and he’s staring into green eyes again, and all of a sudden the burn fades just the slightest bit, all of a sudden there’s confusion, conflict, contradiction. Warm breath, just faintly spearmint, he’s just as breathless. They are both still when their eyes meet, as if green eyes had forgotten just who he was with, as if it hadn’t sunk in until that moment. Wander’s hands cup his face very slowly, very carefully, find his cheeks to be burning hot, find a tenseness in his jaw, but he didn’t pull away._ “Sayin’ the usual junk he always says and whatnot.”

 

“Did he threaten you?” Sylvia asked, her arms crossed.

 

“Nah, he didn’t get that far into it.” _That low voice whispers, asking why he was doing this, why he said to go here, why he wasn’t scared of him, why he wanted this, why why why, murmuring, words lost in the mumbling. Luckily, Wander was good at reading people, he understood despite the words that fell through. Wander kissed him again. This time was gentle._ “He just started yellin’ about how he would beat me one day, win our rivalry, somethin’ like that. He pushed me against a wall, was gonna say a thing or two I think, but. I got him to stop.”

 

“What’d you do?” Sylvia looked a little alarmed.

 

“Well…” _Wander parted again, and those eyes seemed dazed by the sweetness of it all, this kiss not fierce or forceful, but compassionate. He murmured that it was because he was pretty great is all, and that he felt like it. He blushed, he stammered, he looked away, then suddenly his eyes shifted up somewhere to the side as there was a sound outside the little bubble they had been existing in for the past few minutes. Alarm jolted through the both of them and they parted, faces bright red. Wander tugged at the hem of his shirt to straighten it, and green eyes strong arms warm cheeks was off and walking, stammering something, stammering something else, and Wander was alone, stunned and heartbeat still racing, his smile disbelieving, amazed, and sweet._ “I called ‘im handsome, and I kissed ‘im.” _So smiling, heart still going a million miles a minute, he was leaving as well, a bounce in his step._

 

Realization seemed to dawn on her in increments. Confusion, realization, shock, confusion, horror, anger, confusion, deadpanned irritation and resigned annoyance. She took a deep breath. “…Wander, one day, I’m going to throttle you. You’re going to tell me something you did, and I’m going to throttle you. This guy has been harassing us for ages and has taken more than one swing at you, why would you—oh no, don’t you dare shrug at me, _no do not give me that look_. The fact that you aren’t in a hospital blows my mind here, it really does, instead you’re black and blue from… oh my GOD Wander.” Wander had the decency to look sheepish. “I hope it was worth it, because those sure aren’t fading for like, a week minimum. Ugh, now I’m thinking about it, gross. Ew.” She ran a hand through her brightly colored hair, sighing in irritation. “For the _love_ of god, at least tell me he agreed to go on a date with you or something. Took you to dinner, I don’t know.”

 

“Um. I’m getting there. Slowly. Was hopin’ to ask yesterday, but, that didn’t really work out for… several…reasons.” Wander said awkwardly, moving to rub his neck. He was distracted again by his reflection, found himself tracing over one of the marks with his finger, feeling just a little bit dazed. “It still isn’t sinkin’ in yet,” he whispered, a kind of quiet thrill in his voice. “Oh my gracious, I _kissed_ him! And he… he _kissed me back!_ Syl what do I do!?”

 

“Well, first of all, you’re making him buy you a meal. And if you don’t, I will.” She walked back out of the bathroom, trying to find clean jeans in her dresser. “And I mean _today._ It’s Saturday. If you wait until school on Monday, it’ll be too late. Doesn’t he like, loiter around at the park over the weekend?” Wander nodded. “We’re going there, and one of you is going to ask the other one out, so help me. And if he tries anything dumb, I have your back.”

 

“I… don’t think that’ll be necessary,” he said after a moment of deliberation. She rolled her eyes and tossed him a sweater from her drawer. He looked over it, a little confused. “This isn’t mine, this is yours.”

 

“Yep, but I don’t think you have any turtlenecks stashed away at my house from past sleepovers, so this’ll have to do. Unless you want to go without one and just walk around with those trophies on display?” she said simply.

 

“…Oh. Right.” He flushed. “Aww, man.”

 

“At least it’s fall.” She pulled jeans from her drawer. “Don’t need you melting on me. Everything’s already pretty mushy around here.”

 

* * *

 

The park was particularly empty that day. Usually a small squad of teenage guys would be hanging out under one of the shelter-like structures, sitting at picnic tables and laughing really loudly and playing music and just being generally rowdy. But that particular Saturday, only two were there. One giant of a guy in a red hoodie-vest, and approaching, a scrawny-looking nerd type with one side of his glasses blacked out. The only of the crew that had been texted to show up that day. Everyone was pretty worried about Hater, he’d been absent from the world from after school until the text he’d sent to Peepers, which was odd. Usually he was hard to avoid, but he just dropped off the face of the earth until that fateful 1 am text. Peepers knew something was up before he even got there, but what he saw before him sealed the deal.

 

Hater had his head down on the picnic table, his hood up like usual, chin rested on his folded arms, staring outward into space. He looked like he was lost in thought, which was kind of unusual for him. He was a live-in-the-moment, impulsive, shoot-first kinda person. So when Peepers noticed this, he got just the smallest bit worried. Or, more worried.

 

“So. How did the meeting yesterday go?” Peepers asked, sitting down across from him. The only information he’d gotten before he’d gone off radar was that there was some meeting with that Wander kid that had been driving Hater nuts for ages now, after school behind the main building. Then he’d gone radio silent. Peepers was really concerned about whatever had happened, why he’d been gone all of the previous day.

 

The loud, drawn out groan of frustration ended up being a pretty solid answer.

 

Meanwhile, inside his head, Hater couldn’t help but replay the scene over and over and over. The little grin, the slow blink, “You know, you’re awful handsome, Hatey”, with that twang and that crook of his grin seeming to say something new. And somehow what just kept sticking out in his mind was how soft everything about him was. His skin, his lips, his hair tangled under his fingers. How he said, “It’s okay if you want to go. I won’t be mad. I promise”. Like he cared how Hater felt or something. Like that was important. For some reason what he remembered so clearly, the most clearly of all, was how he tasted like fresh apples. Sweet. So terribly sweet.

 

He groaned again, lifting up his head. “I think I’m going to die,” he grumbled.

 

“Woah, bruised lip. What happened?” Peepers asked, eyebrows raised as he noted the detail.

 

“He kissed me.” Peepers just stared at him for a long moment before his expression fell into one of mild irritation. Apparently this wasn’t an acceptable reaction, because Hater put his head back down again, words muffled by his arms. “He _kissed_ me on the _mouth_ Peepers! And then I kissed _him!_ This is a thing that happened!”

 

“I’d tell you I’m surprised and that I’m sorry, but I’m not. I’m just not.” Hater was the one staring in shock now. “He invited you to go see him an hour and a half after school behind the building by the wall. Thinking based on common knowledge, that’s either going to be a fight or a kiss, and I’m pretty sure the guy’s never said a curse word before, he’s not going to give you a punch. But sheesh, looks like he _does_ have teeth. Was that mostly your fault, or…?”

 

Hater stared at the tabletop for a few seconds. “Peepers, I am going to _die!”_

 

“I _doubt_ you’re going to die.”

 

“I’m going to _die,_ ” he insisted. He then looked back up, eyes wide with some kind of repressed panic. “I can’t stop thinking about it! And I just, I’ve gotten all worried about it. What if he starts telling everyone? What if he’s embarrassed about it? What am I supposed to say next time I see him? I can’t just yell at him like usual! What would I even say?”

 

Peepers was looking over his shoulder at something. “Well, you have maybe thirty seconds to think about it, because he’s currently walking over here. As well as his tall friend.”

 

“He’s _what?”_

 

“Heya, Hatey!” Wander shouted from afar, and Hater turned around, stared with wide eyes at the redhead jogging towards him, smile wide, expression bright. His tall (slightly intimidating) friend trailed just behind, hands in her pockets, her bright magenta hair tousled, her eyes set and serious. Wander’s eyes on the other hand were alight with the usual life, honesty, sweetness.

 

Jesus, now all he could see were those eyes staring at him and telling him, “Because you’re really, really great. And I feel like it.”

 

The girl friend (not girlfriend apparently, but girl, spacebar, friend, best friend, platonic life partner, pick and choose) was kinda glaring at him. But he was currently ignoring that for the most part because now Wander was standing right in front of him, bouncing on his heels. As if waiting for something. Hater realized belatedly that he hadn’t said anything yet.

 

“Uh, sup,” Hater said. Peepers gave him a disappointed look, but he chose to ignore it. His attention was caught by the oversized sweater the redhead was wearing. It clashed with the color of his hair and his hat and hung off his small frame like a sheet. “What’s with the massive shirt?”

 

Wander blinked at the question as if he was taken by surprise. He ducked his head to cough into his hand, glanced at Peepers, glanced at the ground. He turned his head to one side slightly and Hater already could see a violet mark even before he tugged down the collar of the turtleneck. Peepers made a choking sound behind him and his bodyguard lady looked practically murderous, which made him stop laughing pretty quickly. Hater felt something in his stomach jump when he saw the scattering of marks all down his neck, turning brilliant colors.

 

Wander was definitely blushing. “It’s. Worse on the other side,” he said quietly, tugging the neck back up again. Just under his ear there was still a fairly visible mark that the sweater didn’t cover. Hater forced himself to look away from it and focus on what he was saying. “But, Sylvia mentioned that we should really talk about what happened, since. Since we didn’t get the chance and all.”

 

Peepers hopped over the table to sit on the same side as them and turned to Hater, keeping his voice quiet enough that only Hater could hear. “Hold on, you did _that_ to his neck and then you just left? Seriously?”

 

Hater covered his face with his hands for a moment, smoothing out his embarrassment, before turning to reply. “A teacher walked out the back door.”

 

Another giggle that he very poorly tried to disguise as a cough. “Oh. Of course,” he said, clearly struggling not to laugh.

 

“Shut uuuuuup,” groaned Hater, face in his hands again. He heard Sylvia clear her throat, and he looked up. Wander’s smile was starting to look a little awkward, strained even. “Alright, so. First of all.” Hater tugged on one of the strings of his hoodie, the idea of making eye contact nigh impossible. “You never actually told me why you called a meeting in the first place.”

 

Wander was scuffing his shoes on the ground now, arms folded behind his back. “Um, well, I just wanted to… mention… what I said to start with. Just tell you that.” Hater was silent for a few moments, and Wander looked up finally. “You remember? How I said—“

 

“I remember,” Hater cut him off quickly, glancing at Peepers self-consciously. “So… wait, then why’d you… kiss me?” He spaced the last two words awkwardly.

 

Another beat of silence, that lopsided grin, kicking his foot in the dirt absentmindedly again. “Well, because I felt like it.”

 

It felt almost like an echo, the exact same tone, the exact same grin, the exact same little dusting of blush on his face, beginning to turn the end of his ears red. All that was missing was Hater’s hand tangled in his bright orange hair and a brick wall and nope shutting down that train of thought right now. “Um… hey,” he said, staring down at his fists in his lap. “Do you… I mean, I should probably, like. Take you out to eat or something. Like, as a manners thing. If… you feel like it.”

 

“Jesus Christ,” Peepers breathed from beside him, exasperated. Hater elbowed him, hard, heard a sigh from Sylvia. He looked up and noted that Wander was clearly trying to keep from bouncing off the walls, his grin wide, his eyes practically sparking and when the hell did Hater get this gay, what the shit.

 

“I would love to,” Wander said, voice full of affection, to the point where if it was anyone else, Hater might’ve thought he was being facetious.

 

“Awesome. I mean, um. Cool. I’m. Glad,” Hater said stiffly, awkward, trying not to sound as relieved as he was. Wander seemed to catch on anyways.

 

“Oh, hold on—“ Wander hiked up his sweater so he could reach his pocket, pulling out a pad of paper and scribbling something down on it quickly. Hater spent a moment wondering why the heck he just carried around a pen and notepad before he tore it the sheet off and handed it to him. He looked down at the writing and saw that Wander had written a phone number. Underneath that, he’d written his first name and a smiley face and what a dork oh my god. “So we can work out details and such!” he said cheerfully, which was like, one of three total settings that he had.

 

Hater took the pen from him and wrote his own number down on the bottom of the paper, tearing it off and handing it to him quickly. “So, like, dinner or something?” Hater suggested. “Downtown, tomorrow?”

 

“Takin’ me out to dinner? This to make up for last time,” Wander asked cheekily, “Or are you tryin’ to start something?”

 

Sylvia absolutely _wheezed_ , looking surprised and amazed at him. Hater stammered, suddenly very flustered. Wander laughed into his hand quietly.

 

“I’m just pokin’ _fun,_ don’t worry! I mean… not that I’d mind, actually. After all,” He turned and started striding away, grinning over his shoulder. “I still gotta get you back for _these,_ it’s only fair _.”_   He poked meaningfully at his own neck. Hater turned bright red in the face, eyes wide. The redhead waved over his shoulder as he left, his friend in tow, still laughing. “Later, Hater!”

 

Both he and Peepers watched with disbelief as they walked away.

 

“…Uh, so. You okay?” Peepers asked after a second, looking over at Hater.

 

“…I’m going to die.”

 

“Yes. Because I’m going to kill you,” Peepers replied, rubbing his temple with one hand. “I swear, one of these days you’re going to say something and I’m just. I’m just going to kill you. You opened with ‘Um, sup’, really? Honestly.” Peepers sighed, shaking his head.

 

Hater put his head down on the table and tried to find any kind of regret within him for not only asking him on a date, but blushing and stammering like, like he was 12 or something. He was angry to find that there was none in his system, just mild embarrassment. He caught himself already trying to think of where they might go, what they might eat, if they should do something additionally other than just get food and leave again.

 

“I’m so fucked.”

 

“Yes. Yes you are."

 

**Author's Note:**

> [Oh, sexuality headcanons. Sylvia's not looking for a relationship but would be down with anyone who isn't a jerk, Hater is bi with a preference, Peepers just wants to finish his AP courses leave him alone (he's closeted gay like nobody knows), Wander is ace/arospec and honestly just really likes physical affection, doesn't really think about romance all that much for himself. So. Yeah. Also posted on tumblr, find me there at thetriggeredhappy hmu if you wanna chat about this show i am ALWAYS psyched for that]


End file.
